October 17, 2008

Who ISN'T In Bed With Drug Companies and Medical Device Manufacturers?

With the U.S. Supreme Court about to hear arguments whether drug companies should have complete
immunity for putting unsafe drugs on the market, the news has been filled lately with stories about drug and medical device companies and what seems to be their disturbingly cozy relationships with some of the researchers who do reports on drug safety, and even a prominent FDA decision-maker.

For example, FDA officials are now looking into a possible conflict of interest involving University of Michigan professor Martin Philbert, who heads an FDA advisory panel that is set to deliver a “pivotal ruling” on the safety of the (possibly toxic) plastic baby bottle ingredient BPA.

This past summer, the risk science center at Michigan (that Philbert heads) received a $5 million pledge from Charles Gelman, a retired manufacturer of medical equipment who is “openly skeptical” of BPA's risks. And key members of Congress, expressing alarm over this, are also calling for an investigation.

Meanwhile, the New York Times recently reported that prominent research psychiatrist Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff “earned more than $2.8 million in consulting arrangements with drug makers from 2000 to 2007, failed to report at least $1.2 million of that income to his university and violated federal research rules.” (Isn’t research by guys like this likely to end up on the FDA’s desk when it considers a drug’s safety?)

Coincidently, today’s Times reported that U.S. Senators Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) have sent letters to the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, as well as Columbia University’s Medical Center that is closely connected to the Foundation, asking for “information about its financial relationships with device manufacturers and drug producers.”

To paraphrase Hamlet, something seems rotten in the state of the medical world. Let’s hope the U.S. Supreme Court takes that under advisement when it decides later this term whether drug companies should be completely immune from lawsuits over dangerous and defective drugs.

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